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iPhone X – Page 2

Now the setting up of the iPhone X is so much easier if you already have a device with iOS 11 installed. You can then use that device’s camera to scan the image of what looks like a blue cloud on the screen of the iPhone X. This will authenticate the new iPhone and make the entire process less time consuming.

Setting up iPhone X using iPhone 6 Plus

The process for setting up the new iPhone X went fairly smoothly, with only one issue – I was unable to restore from the latest backup of my iPhone 6 Plus as the iPhone X was shipped with iOS 11.0.1 whereas my iPhone 6 Plus had already been updated to 11.1 on Friday in preparation for the arrival of the iPhone X. Hence I had to setup as a new iPhone, update the iPhone X to iOS 11.1, before I could restore from my latest iPhone backup on iTunes. Compared to this part of the setup, the rest including setting up Face ID was so straightforward.

iPhone 6 Plus kept close to iPhone X during setup

Setting up Face ID involved rotating my head around to capture the 3D image of my face – you will have to do this process twice before the Face ID setup becomes complete.

Setting up Face ID – requires rotating the face around twice to complete

Once the Face ID is successfully setup, you will be greeted by the little screen below with the smiley face. Now I have to confess that I was a little skeptical about the whole Face ID thing, and in fact it was a negative point in my mind against me buying the iPhone X. But now that I have had a chance to use it and get used to not needing to put my finger on a physical home button (which is no longer present), it has proved to be very useful and improves the speed of access to Apps or functions which require an ID confirmation. It even works well in the dark – I have to say that I’m now sold on this. In fact, my oldest daughter was so impressed by this feature that she would also like to upgrade to iPhone X.

Face ID now setup

What do I like about the iPhone X?

Great screen size and clarity, with it filling up nearly the whole of the front of the iPhone – definitely the best iPhone screen I’ve seen or used with great colours and contrast (better than my iPad Pro). Great for watching videos and viewing photos.

The size being smaller than the iPhone 6 or 8 Plus, makes it more amenable to one handed use. I do not have very big hands, but I can type fairly fast and relatively accurately using just my left thumb.

I was not very pleased with the performance of the iPhone 6 Plus after upgrading to iOS 11 as it became very slow. The iPhone X works so much faster with iOS 11 – this in itself is already a very good reason to upgrade.

The two rear cameras have 12 megapixel sensors, both have optical image stabilisation, and both have faster lenses (F1.8 for the wide-angle and F2.4 for the telephoto lens) which means they can capture more light than other iPhones and hence give better image quality. The portrait mode is also useful to keep the subject in focus, while blurring the background.

While I was skeptical about the functionality of the Face ID, after using it for just one day, I can already appreciate how the Face ID can actually be faster than the Touch ID for Apps which need ID confirmation to unlock certain features – the Face ID check can work almost instantly as you will already be looking at the screen (Touch ID still requires the finger to be placed onto the Home button).

Some of the gestures used to access certain functions e.g. swiping up to go back to Home page, swiping the bottom of the screen left or right to switch between opened Apps, are particularly useful.

What could be improved?

The cost of buying the 64GB iPhone X is nearly £1000 (or $1000 in the US) – definitely not cheap. Apple could have priced it a little lower, although it would probably eat into the iPhone 8 Plus market.

There are plenty of features in iOS 11 which make the iPhone X work better even without the physical Home button – but these are not setup by default and requires the user to know they exist and turn them on e.g. in Accessibility menu there is assistive touch which can give you effectively a screen version of the Home button that can be placed wherever it is accessible or less intrusive. A video on how to access these would probably be helpful.

Verdict:

I have to say that the iPhone X is the best iPhone I have ever used, and was the one I have been waiting for to replace my iPhone 6 Plus which has served me well over the last 3 years. The high price and lack of other colour choices (only Space Grey or Silver) is a bit of a downer – for me the Space Grey is the better choice of the two. But the features mentioned above, the usability and the fact that iOS 11 runs so much faster on it, make it a no-brainer for those who can afford it and who are committed to iOS devices. Definitely recommended.